166 . STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



THE WELL-BRED CHILD. 



MRS. MARY A. MAYO, BATTLE CREEK, MICHIGAN. 



It is evident that marriage was primarily founded that the race 

 might be perpetuated, and the preservation of the race, which is the 

 child, is the duty not only of the family, but of the state. 



True marriage is the life union of one man and one woman who are in 

 suitable condition of mind, body, disposition, tastes, development and 

 age, to permit them to live together in happy, healthful relations for 

 the purpose of founding a home and rearing a family. And the solemn 

 obligation to do so is affirmed by each in the name of the Father, the 

 Son and the Holy Ghost, and this tie between them should last until 

 death severs it. Marriage cain mean no more, for under these conditions 

 the highest possible standard of marriage may be reached. It must 

 mean no less, for less would make of this most solemn and fearful 

 responsibility but a total failure, and failure here means untold misery 

 not only for this one union and this one family, but misery for genera- 

 tions yet to be. The first obligation of men and women as partners in 

 marriage, for it is a partnership, and if either shirks responsibility, the 

 child, the home, the result of marriage, must suffer in like proportions, 

 is to prepare themselves to become parents; to give to the child yet to 

 be the best possible conditions in order that it may be of the highest 

 type. We recognize the fact that marriage has secondary considera- 

 tions, as that of companionship, helpfulness, etc., but today we are deal- 

 ing with its primary object — the child. For no other office in life do 

 men and women need more careful and thorough training, not the train- 

 ing of a few months or j'ears, but the training of a lifetime. In fact, 

 the life thought of every parent should be: what can I do or be that 

 my children and my children's children may be well bred. My child 

 must be just as wise, good, beautiful and happy as he is capable of 

 being, and his capabilities must be of the highest. What can I do 

 or achieve in order that the child that may be mine shall be of the 

 highest type, in the likeness and image of his God, and but little less 

 than the angels. A perfect organization and perfect development is the 

 inherited right of every child. It is its greatest inheritance to be well 

 bred, well born, and to be welcome at birth because it is desired and 

 not because of a mere chance, as gratification of passion that compelled 

 it to be. Parents are not living today for the children, but for the 

 race and for all coming time. The principles we make ours today, the 

 l)ractices we pursue, the lives we live, the thoughts we think, leave 

 their mark -on the race as long as time endures, and who shall say that 

 they do not reach over and touch the border of that land that we term 

 eternity. . We say that thoughts are living things. They are seeds and 

 we live with them, and not only ourselves but our thoughts are the 

 foundation of the character of the child that is coming. All improve- 

 ment is the result of effort. Nothing happens. If it is wise and best 

 that the child shall be well bred, this means advancement and it must 

 be the result of human efforts. Man's power to enlarge, develop, 

 strengthen and improve the vegetable and animal world is not ques- 



